KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia extended yesterday's gains to open higher today, taking the cue from the overnight Wall Street which stretched its rally, powered by gains in the technology and healthcare sectors, dealers said.

At 9.05 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 6.24 points to 1,543.87 from Tuesday's close of 1,537.63.

It opened 5.52 points higher at 1,543.15.

However, the broader market was slightly negative with losers leading gainers 177 to 159, while 268 counters were unchanged, 1,671 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 291.33 million units worth RM111.71 million.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd, in a research note, said given the rebound on the FBM KLCI yesterday, it was expected that the near term floor had been found and investors could have digested the proposed one-off Cukai Makmur (Prosperity Tax) and the contract notes stamp duty changes.

"All in all, the negative earnings impact could be lesser than expected, hence, bargain-hunting activities have emerged.

"Also, with the strong broad rally on Wall Street, we opined that the buying interest may spillover to technology stocks on the local front, which could be one of the sweet spot in our local bourse," it said.

Commodity-wise, the crude palm oil (CPO) price managed to maintain its trading range of between RM4,800 and RM5,000, while Brent oil is still hovering above US$84.

Hence, for sector focus, investors might lookout for recovery-theme stocks going into the final two months of 2021 with technology stocks may be lifted by the strong sentiment on Wall Street while overall broad market may be supported by bargain-hunting activities at least for the near term, it added.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank added four sen to RM8.03, Public Bank and Tenaga improved two sen each to RM4.06 and RM9.62, respectively, Petronas Chemicals gained five sen to RM8.33 and IHH Healthcare rose 13 sen to RM6.59.

Of the actives, Nexgram edged up half-a-sen to 2.5 sen, Sedania perked seven sen to 70 sen, TA Win eased half-a-sen to 15 sen, while Dagang Nexchange reduced 1.5 sen to 81 sen and Sapura Energy was flat at 10 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 30.69 points to 11,429.18, the FBMT 100 Index climbed 27.66 points to 11,044.68, the FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 30.36 points to 12,487.95, and the FBM ACE improved 6.74 points to 7,129.21, while the FBM 70 eased 5.51 points to 15,079.79.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.63 of-a-point to 203.98, the Plantation Index shed 4.3 points to 6,838.62, and the Financial Services Index advanced 52.61 points to 15,232.42.--BERNAMA